I am a home care nurse. The worst wounds I find are infected stage 3-4 pressure ulcers specially coccyx or ankle. Specially if it is psuedomonus. Green thick drainage gets me everytime. Also the worst ever was one of my 1st primary home pt who lived in a trailer whos floor was covered in code brown and piss. And I think the last time he had a bath was when the hospital made him have one. It was awful. I hear now though he is much better but the smell is still in my nose. Also g-tube residuals are nasty too.

I agree pseudomonas, gangrene, and gi bleeds, but don’t forget about the colostomy bag that has come undone and the patient has it from head to toe–having done home health for many years, I remember the patient who had a stage 4 coccyx ulcer with pseudomonas and even thought it was 8 years ago, I can still smell it–dead chickens–ugh!

Gi bleeds aren’t great. Multiple code browns in cdiff rooms…can’t get to a shower soon enough when home. Initial I&D MRSA. Have to laugh.. last night the lactulose worked and partial CB on way to toilet. Toilet plugged by stool lodging sideways and unable to complete its descent. We were laughing and one of us was gagging at same time. Buiness as usual.

had a Hospice patient once, and I went to do mouth care. When I moved the mask, I almost vomited on her… Backed up stool in mouth. Worse than c-diff. Good thing she was unconcious. Never did get her mouth completely cleaned.

I have worked in Long Term Care and am bless because when I was 16 years old I ha Ostemyelitis of my Right Tbia. I was alergic to most of the major antibiotics then and had a PCN allergy. I had to take Kanamycin Sulfate injections for Two Months until I could find one that would completly get rid of the infection. Well I lose 90% of my ofactory and 40% of my Auditory nerve loss. That being said I could not smell those ofensive odors luckily. I had no problem with the Code Brown from Colostomy bag compromise,or the decubitus dressing changes.

Katrina, as a result of a farm accident when I was 14, I had Osteomyelitis from mid Tib/Fib through all but the phlanges. The treatment I received at Childrens in Madison, WI, is why I chose Nursing as my profession. I kept the leg for 20 years, losing it after the infection went active (and resistant) again.
The smell of the drainage when they first windowed the cast still makes me nauseous when I think of it. The color was so close to the pudding I was eating when the Doctor came to open it, that I still cannot eat butterscotch pudding.
The other smell that gets me is old saliva, what some people have called the “smell of a Nursing Home”!

Yeah, I have to agree with the c.diff thing. I dealt with that on my very first day on my clinicals. I tried to keep it together, but I ended up running to a toilet to barf. I was SO embarrassed, but the other ladies on the floor said that it’s happened to them before.

And some of you mention things that smell WORSE than c.diff? Oh man, that has to be REALLY BAD!

Alcohol swabs don’t bother me and I actually like the smell of benzoin. There are few things worse than the smell of Ruptured Colostomy Bag because for some reason the dietary team thinks its a good idea to feed frail elderly people whose digestive systems are no longer anywhere near up to par chili. I was thinking it would be justifiable homicide if whoever planned that menu were found at the bottom of a laundry chute.

I agree with all of these, but there’s no mention of rotavirus! Good grief all the alcohol pads in the world can’t get rid of that horrific smell! You got me on colostomies that have leaked…thank God for the mask so the pt can’t see me gagging behind it!

End stage cancer of any kind is awful, C diff, pseudomonas, GI bleed, –of course, CB’s are awful. I love the smell of alcohol swabs, benzoin, don’t have any probs with cafeteria food either. Tube feeds are not appetizing, but they smell like baby formula, really!! Ever tasted baby formula, it is not nice!! Maybe I have worked in medicine for too long to be really affected by anything –when you used to clean up vomit and CB’s without gloves, i guess you get used to anything!! And yes, NO GLOVES of any kind -kept your fingernails short, and washed your hands a lot!!

gangrene, I think it gets in your pores. Thing that made me gag the worst, body odor from pt that had socks removed and skin came with it, as they hadn’t been removed in a very long time. I had to leave the room and stand in the hall

Ok, I’m weird. I actually like the smell of benzoin. Smells like the lumber yards in northern MN. GI bleeds are by far the worst. When I worked the Medical ICU we could smell them coming down the hall! So why hasn’t smelly crotches made the list! Man I hated peri care! Death has a smell of its own too. Took hours to get that out of my nose.

After 25years inNICU, I would have to go with bowel necrosis and rotovirus, followed closely by chorioamnitis. Although I have never smelled end stage cancer, I remember my Dad talking about his aunt who died of breast ca in the 1950’s. His mother said she could smell cancer as soon as she walked in the house.

I think the thing that stinks the most is this list. Imagine how a patient would feel knowing that we nurses are gagging over their odors. We all will be patients at one time or another. Will be wondering if we are offending our caregivers?

First- benzoin shouldn’t be on the list!
Three of the worst are dead tissue (either necrotic, gangrene or that burning smell mentioned by another reader), vomit and….(keep in mind I’ve been L&D for the past 20 years…)
The #1 worst smell in my book is curry poop. Come on ladies- have a heart! Don’t eat that stuff if there’s any chance you might be having a baby in the next few weeks. So VILE!!!

And to CarollynnSKJ- We’ve all been there on both sides of the stethoscope. This is about venting and levity. It’s not necessary to censor our remarks from patients in a nursing forum. Unless we mention your smell AND your name, that is.

I just retired and have worked in almost every dept. The smell that stands out in my mind was as a student watching an autopsy of a woman who had died of intestinal gangrene(that’s what it was called back then)..It took me weeks to get the odour out of my nostrils even though we were wearing masks.

Melena (well, i know that it falls beneath GI-bleeds), CDI-infection, gangrene, deep wounds with osteitis, deep wounds with strep och staph-infection, fecal matter coming the wrong way (either from vomiting or via nasogastric tube) when a patient has ileus. That’s some of the smells i never get used to…